A message from the heart

Conversation sweethearts are a Valentine's Day tradition

Posted: Sunday, February 11, 2001

By Jill ZimanekCorrespondent

Every year, one or two little -- but very important -- lines featuring various messages are stamped in red food dye across the face of some 8 billion, half-inch wide Sweethearts candies. And nearly every one of those Sweethearts is purchased in the six weeks between Jan. 1 and Valentine's Day.

NECCO (New England Confectionary Company) Sweethearts are to Valentine's Day what candy corn is to Halloween and cough drops are to the cold and flu season. They make their annual appearance, are handed out to every child in America by mom and dad, teachers and friends, and are inevitably spilled everywhere as kids scramble to read the messages printed on each one.

The little hearts are made nearly the same way they have been since they were created in the 1860s by Daniel Chase, brother of Oliver Chase, the founder of NECCO.

With six flavors to a box, the candies are created by a cookie cutter-like machine from a confection of 90 percent sugar and a dash each of gelatin, gums, artificial colors and flavors. After a 45-minute drying process, the candies are boxed and stored for Valentine's Day.

They are made year-round in three plants around the country -- Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Louisiana -- from late February through mid-January of the following year to keep up with the Valentine's Day demand. But if you happen to have leftovers, fear not that these little treats will spoil: they have a shelf life of three to four years before flavor starts to disappear.

Lory Zimbalatti, marketing manager for NECCO, says that packed with all that sugar, the candies are basically indestructible.

''If we had candies from the 1800s they would probably still be all right,'' Zimbalatti says. ''They wouldn't taste like much, but they wouldn't have disintegrated. These were sent to soldiers in World War II because they didn't melt in the heat. Admiral Byrd gave them to his Arctic explorers for energy. Unless you stomp on them, they're going to last.''

Before he retired in June 2000, ''King of Hearts'' Walter Marshall, former vice president of logistics and planning at NECCO, was the man behind the sayings on the conversation hearts for more than a decade. Still visiting the office to finish up special projects, Marshall is slowly weaning himself from a job he dedicated his life to, working 47 years in the candy business.

He was given the moniker ''King of Hearts'' more than 10 years ago by a reporter who was doing a story about how NECCO selects its conversation heart sayings. Marshall ran with it, making regular Valentine appearances on the Today Show, CNN and the Rosie O'Donnell Show, among others.

This year he'll appear on TV with Martha Stewart Feb. 12 and in a feature story in Scholastic News, a children's magazine.

''It was so funny the attention this character would get each year,'' Marshall says from NECCO headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. ''I mean, I would do my job all year, and we're making these candy hearts all year round -- 100,000 pounds per day to keep up with demand -- then the fun part comes when we get this response this time of year. I mean, making candy is making candy. But this is nostalgic. Everyone remembers getting candy hearts on Valentine's Day.''

Every year, Marshall would look for new sayings to add to the list of more than 100 sentiments stamped on the Sweethearts. Two years ago, the theme was ''popular songs and pop culture,'' adding, among others, to the list, ''You Rock,'' ''My Way,'' ''Let It Be'' and ''As If.'' Last year the theme was ''romantic sayings and the year 2000,'' thus ''Romeo,'' ''Amore,'' ''2000 Hugs'' and ''2000 Kisses'' were added.

NECCO created a committee to take over where Marshall has left off, although he has still made some contributions this year under the 2001 theme, ''Space Odyssey 2001,'' with messages like ''Love 2001,'' ''Star Dust,'' ''Venus,'' ''URA Star,'' ''Moon Beam,'' ''Odyssey'' and ''Rising Star.''

''We had a brainstorming session in which we got input from employees. We got hundreds of suggestions from school children,'' Zimbalatti says. ''American Girl Magazine suggested the smiley face and we added that, and Seventeen Magazine had a contest and 'First Kiss' won that one.''

Other additions include ''Thank You,'' ''Too Sweet'' and ''You & Me,'' a saying which came from Marshall's 10-year-old granddaughter, Abigail, who made him a heart out of Playdough bearing the message. Scholastic News's February issue tells the story.

The theme for the 2002 Sweetheart's sentiments has already been selected but will not be released to the public until January of next year.

The majority of the candies are sold in the United States where Valentine's Day is celebrated with the most vigor. Others are sold in Canada, Puerto Rico and South America. NECCO is considering Spanish Sweethearts in the near future.

NECCO Wafers are another of the companies productions, producing a round flat candy that uses the same process that makes the 3-calorie tiny Sweethearts and the 6-calorie larger hearts. But the Sweethearts are a major chunk of NECCO's business profits each year.

''They are an American icon,'' Zimbalatti says. ''We've had people call us in June asking for 'Marry Me' hearts to propose marriage, and we have to go through the hearts and pick them out. But they are such a part of Valentine's Day.

''We've heard of teachers that use them to teach statistics or percentages with 'How many are orange?' or what percentage have a certain saying on them. They're an educational candy,'' she adds. ''Other people use them to decorate picture frames. We get pictures every year of the different ways teachers or children use them.''

Though more than 21 million boxes of Sweethearts are sold, you'll be hard-pressed to find many adults who actually enjoy eating them, ''chalky'' being the word frequently used to describe their flavor. But kids love them.